Waylon Jennings – Waylon Live: The Expanded Edition

When released in 1976, Waylon Live instantly joined the short list of great country concert recordings, alongside Hank Thompson’s At the Golden Nugget, Johnny Cash’s At Folsom Prison, Charley Pride’s In Person (Live At Panther Hall), and not very many others. But what we have here — a new two-disc, 42-track version of the album that’s four times longer than the original — just may be the genre’s finest live album ever. Waylon Live: The Expanded Edition should be heralded as the Live At The Apollo of country music.

Waylon Live compiled tracks from a trio of 1974 concerts: the first at the Western Place in Dallas on September 24th, the next two at Austin’s Opry House on the 25th and 26th. You could say Jennings was having a productive week. The very next day’s issue of Billboard found his current single, “I’m A Ramblin’ Man”, atop the country singles chart, the same position to which his previous single, “This Time,” had climbed back in the summer.

What’s more, he was at that moment in the process of completing Dreaming My Dreams, his classic “outlaw” collaboration with producer Cowboy Jack Clement. This wasn’t long after Jennings had won his artistic and professional independence from Chet Atkins and RCA, but still well before the whole outlaw bit done got out of hand — before the music of Waylon and Willie and the boys grew rote and preposterously self-romanticizing.

In other words, these shows coincided with Jennings at the height of his powers, particularly his powers as a vocalist. Historian Bill C. Malone once wrote of Waylon: “There has been no greater singer in country music.” Waylon Live provides the evidence to support the thesis. There’s a knowingness to Jennings’ singing here, a double vision, which lets him convey multiple meanings. He’s always present — in his performance as an entertainer and, quite a different thing, in the drama of the lyric at hand.

When, for example, the set opens with his by-now famous rendition of Jimmie Rodgers’ “T for Texas”, Jennings makes it clear he’s sick to death of rambling and broken hearts, but that he’d also do it all over in a heartbeat. In a version of “Amanda” (half a decade before it, too, became a Jennings chart-topper), he displays an immediate emotional connection to the song’s regretful narrator, even as he conveys what a pleasure it is to be fronting a great hillbilly band.

One of the best, in fact. The Waylors were spearheaded here by pedal steel legend Ralph Mooney, who Jennings repeatedly calls out (“Hit it, Moon!”) for propulsive licks and haunting solos. More than holding their own every note of the way are Larry Whitmore on 12-string guitar and Ralph Crabtree on harmonica. But the real secret weapon is the rhythm section. Drummer Richie Albright gives the high-hat a workout, while Duke Goff provides the thumping, metronome bass that even at this point was the Waylors’ sonic signature.

Together, they crafted a memorably rocking brand of country music, one that focused intensely, even uniquely, on the groove. There’s a soul-music quality to many of the rhythms that, you could argue, makes Waylon and his Waylors the ultimate purveyors of what Gram Parsons had earlier dubbed Cosmic American Music.

So it’s appropriate that among the numbers included here (22 of which are previously unreleased) is an Animals-inspired version of “House Of The Rising Sun”, as well as a take on Hoyt Axton’s Three Dog Night hit “Never Been To Spain”. This is in addition to tributes to country’s elders (Rex Griffin’s “The Last Letter”, Wynn Stewart’s “Big, Big Love”), as well as the many versions of more recent country songs, such as Willie Nelson’s “Me And Paul”, Steve Young’s “Lonesome, On’ry And Mean”, Kris Kristofferson’s “Me And Bobby McGee”, and Mel Tillis’ “Mental Revenge”. Of course, there are also plenty of Jennings’ own numbers, including “Just To Satisfy You” and “Bob Wills Is Still The King”.

Near the end of the first disc, in a moment omitted from the original release, Albright and Goff vamp on that famous burping beat while Jennings figures out what he wants to sing: “Got a hell of rhythm if I can just find something to go with it.” Jennings’ stalling here is funny, as they say, because it’s true; that beat could go with just about anything he wanted to sing. And that’s the spirit of this entire album: Waylon Jennings and the Waylors sowing their oats, feeling like they can do it all, and proving it.